


Letters You'll Never Read

by Forgotten_Peggy



Category: Bandstand - Oberacker/Oberacker & Taylor
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-04 15:01:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11557638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forgotten_Peggy/pseuds/Forgotten_Peggy
Summary: A series of letters from Julia to Michael after he dies.





	Letters You'll Never Read

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for the show

Dear Michael,

Wow, it almost feels like I’m writing a letter to you that I’ll mail and receive your reply in a few months. But it isn’t.

The telegram arrived yesterday. I think I’m in shock. I want to believe that you’re still over there, fighting, and that you’ll come back to me as soon as the war is over. Instead I now know that you’re still over there, except you’re never coming back.

The message said that you’re buried in some place called Manila. I know I’ll never get there, and I’ll never really get to say goodbye, so this is it, I guess.

I miss you. My mom does too.

I wish you were still here.

Love always, Julia.

* * *

Dear Michael,

It’s been just over a month since that telegram came, and it’s getting a little tiring to be honest. I’ve been labelled a gold star wife, and that distinction seems to be redefining everything I do. It does remind me of you, though. It keeps you with me, but it’s also a near constant reminder that you’re not coming back.

The war ended, we won. You helped do that, and everyone keeps talking about how they’re so proud. I know I should be, but there doesn’t seem to be anything heroic about what you had to do.

I miss you so much.

Love always, Julia.

* * *

Dear Michael,

Your friend, Donny, came to visit me the other day. To check in on me, like he promised you he would do. It took him about four months after the war ended, but I really can’t blame him. Seeing me must remind him of you.

He came for dinner tonight too. Mom even made her devilled eggs and roast. He seems nice, and mom seemed to like him.

Donny showed me some pictures of you from over there. I miss you. I felt embarrassed that I almost broke down in front of him, but I felt like he understood. He misses you too. We all do.

Love always, Julia.

* * *

Dear Michael,

Donny started a band, just like he told me you guys used to talk about. They’re going to try to go to New York, and win a competition for a song as a tribute to the troops. Jimmy, your old friend from just after high school, plays the saxophone and clarinet, and he found some other guys so the band is full of vets.

I sung with them tonight. Donny said he might want me to sing with them. I’m not sure about it, I haven’t sung swing since you left, but I might. I’m going to watch one of their rehearsals in a few days and decide then. I’m not a vet like the guys but Donny said I could still sing with them because of you.

I miss you, but I’m glad I have Donny and Jimmy to tell me stories about you I never heard.

Love always, Julia.

* * *

Dear Michael,

I joined the band. I think it may end up being more exciting than singing a solo in church.

The guys are nice, Donny, Jimmy, Johnny, Wayne, Nick and Davy. They all have their problems, of course, coming back from the war, and they fight sometimes, but they’re so kind to me. They treat me as human, unlike the rest of the city after you died, who treated me like a glass doll, which is refreshing.

The Ohio competition is coming up in a few days, and even though we have a few songs that Donny wrote, Nick is threatening to leave the band if we don’t get a better song. Donny took my poem book tonight for inspiration.

I think Donny and I are growing closer, bonding over you, and the band. It’s crazy, really, but I think he might be the first person to really understand what I’ve been through. He understands loosing someone you love, he lost you too. You were his best friend. It’s nice to have someone understand though.

We both miss you, so much.

Love always, Julia.

* * *

Dear Michael,

We won the Ohio competition! It certainly was more exciting than singing a solo in church.

We didn’t end up using one of Donny’s songs, instead, he set one of my poems to music. It really was surreal, standing up on that stage and singing one of my poems. It’s called Love Will Come And Find Me Again. I felt bad when I first wrote it, but now I’m starting to realise that you would want me to continue living my life, and maybe even if that involves finding love again. I hope so.

The only hard part about getting through to the New York round is that they don’t pay for us to get there, so we may not be able to go. We’re going to take as many gigs as we can get, and try to get as much money to go as possible. I said any way we could go would still be good, but Donny is convinced that we have to ride first class, Pullman cars, and stay in the hotel Astor. For you.

He misses you. So do I.

Love always, Julia.

* * *

Dear Michael,

I don’t even know what to say. I finally built up the courage to ask Donny to tell me how you died. He did. It was his fault. Maybe it wasn’t really, but it feels much easier to blame him. To blame someone. I know he tried to save you, to tell you to get out, but still.

I really like Donny, but now I don’t feel like I can trust him. I just want to believe everything happens for a reason, but I’m not sure if that’s true anymore.

I don’t know how I can face him again. I got ma to tell him I’m sick tonight, but I can’t keep this up for too long. I just don’t know what to do.

Love always, Julia.

* * *

Dear Michael,

We arrived in New York today, and wow. I think it’s everything you dreamed of and more, or so Donny tells me. Right, Donny and I are closer than ever now, after my ma talked some sense into me. I should have known not to blame him, you and the guys went through so much more than I could ever begin to imagine.

New York is incredible. Al, Jo and Oliver, and all of the people at the clubs pitched in to get us seven first class tickets, and four rooms at the hotel Astor. My room is one floor above the guys’, and the view is incredible, better than theirs, though I won’t let them see it. A girl doesn’t let just anyone into her hotel room.

We all went out tonight, all of us but Jimmy and Wayne got a bit tipsy, but Donny was very gentlemanly to walk me back to my door. Maybe he was just trying to get into my room to see my view, though, who knows. We talked outside my room for a bit. I really like him, maybe as more than a friend. But the past still divides us and I don’t know how to overcome that. I like to think you wouldn’t mind if we got together, maybe you’d just want us to be happy, but for now it’s all just too complicated.

No matter what, I will still always love you.

Julia.

* * *

Dear Michael,

It’s been a year since I wrote, wow. We didn’t win the competition, Jimmy found out the contract was a scam, so we did Welcome Home, another one of my poems that Donny set to music, instead of Love Will Come. Welcome Home was about the guys, it was really a slap in the face to a lot of the country, but a lot of vets told us that they appreciated us actually saying that.

I guess people liked our performance because now we’ve got more gigs than ever, all over the country. We just finished a sold out run at the Rainbow Room in New York. I hope somewhere up there you’re looking down and are proud of us. This whole band was your idea after all.

Donny and I are together now, but I will never forget you. For the first time in years, I’m happy again. This band really did that.

I will still always love you,

Julia.

**Author's Note:**

> This is largely unedited, and probably a bit OOC, but oh well. A sort of character study of Julia.  
> I'm not sure if this makes sense if you haven't seen the show, but it should mostly.


End file.
